Image Credit: Kent Simmonds / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

RIH FOUNDATION RADIOTHON

Community philanthropy en masse for RIH Foundation Radiothon

Mar 6, 2025 | 4:33 PM

KAMLOOPS — Royal Inland Hospital serves nearly a quarter-million residents in Kamloops and throughout the Thompson, Cariboo and Shuswap regions.

Operating at that high level requires a lot of healthcare professionals and medical equipment. The RIH Foundation’s annual Radiothon event is aimed at addressing that need with community fundraising.

Thursday’s (March 6) 11th annual Radiothon featured live radio broadcasts on B-100 and live television coverage on CFJC‘s Midday show. With Jim Pattison matching donations up to $200,000, this year the foundation is hoping to raise $400,000.

By 6:00 a.m. Thursday, radio mics were on and phone lines were ringing for the 11th annual Radiothon — and the donation pace quickly picked up from there.

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“I don’t know, I thought it was 2:00 p.m. but it’s, like, 10:00 a.m. so it’s incredible. It’s really incredible,” said RIH Foundation CEO Heidi Coleman while speaking with CFJC earlier Thursday from the hospital. “We had a beautiful $50,000 donation but most of the day it’s been $100, $500, $25 — so really, every dollar counts. When Abbott Wealth was here it was $30,000 and then we got a $50,000 phone call. So amazing.”

Dollars raised for the hospital foundation are used for everything from doctor, nurse and specialist recruitment, to buying equipment for those medical professionals to use. Dr. Benjamin Gershkovich is an ICU physician at RIH, and says the fundraising effort makes a difference in the quality of equipment they’re able to use.

“Definitely from our perspective in the ICU, we use a lot of equipment every day — everything from ventilators to procedure carts, everything that goes toward patient care,” said Gershkovich. “All of that has to come from somewhere and we are really dependent and really grateful for all of the support that the foundation provides.”

Royal Inland is based in Kamloops, but the tertiary hospital serves hundreds of thousands of people from around the region.

“Every day, we’re getting phone calls about transferring patients from external sites. We have a pretty large catchment area, so all of the smaller hospitals in the area very routinely and frequently send patients to Royal Inland Hospital to have access to those tertiary services,” notes Gershkovich.

Making sure the local facility has top notch equipment is part of what draws in repeat Radiothon donors.

“Why do we get involved with it? Because we live here. This is our community,” says Rob Splane of Sun Country Toyota. “This is an exciting day. Twelve hours goes by really quickly and we’re going to raise a lot of funds for this hospital. And most importantly, this is how we say thank you to the women and men who are here for us every day.”

The RIH Foundation says this year’s goal is to rake in $400,000 and hopefully check off items on the hospital’s equipment wish list.

“Everybody here is in it together and we all need this place. Hopefully not too often. But when you do, let’s make sure that everybody has what they need,” adds Coleman.